Is there a comparison site for foreign money exchange vendors? When I travel internationally, I find that some of the vendors can charge different types of commissions and the rates vary wildly. Some are flat fee, some are flat fee plus a percentage, and so on.
2 Answers
There are no flat fees but typically banks and money exchangers will use a the current market rate, up to the minute for some powerful exchangers. They then add a little on top depending on many variables. Those variables can be related to the quantity of currency that organization holds, the average amount they hold, the market trend for that currency, the stability of the currency, the location of that currency exchange, etc.
As for the one stop shop for currency exchange providers, you can try moneysupermarket.com
Hope that helps.
Yes, one such provider is:
They allow you to compare a number of foreign currency providers, and take into account all of the fees and spreads, and give you a simple number which you can use to compare them - the amount of foreign currency you get for your domestic currency.